Ab120560

Varenicline tartate (1.5 mg/kg, Toronto Research Chemicals, V098490), nicotine hydrogen tartate (0.1, 0.5, and 1.5 mg/kg, Glentham Life Sciences, GL9693), and morphine (10 mg/kg, Sigma-Aldrich, M8777) were dissolved in saline. GTS 21 (4 mg/kg, Abcam, ab120560), a partial agonist of the α7 nAChR, was dissolved in DMSO. Stock solutions were aliquoted and frozen. Prior to experiments, stock solutions were diluted with saline to the appropriate concentrations for injection. 200 proof ethanol (2 g/kg) was diluted 1:4 in saline. Mice received injections of 100 μL solution per 10 g of body weight. A varenicline dose that was previously shown to increase NAc DA and attenuate nicotine-evoked NAc DA in vivo in rodents was chosen (Ericson et al., 2009 (link)). Varenicline also decreases ethanol consumption at the dose selected (Steensland et al., 2007 ). Drug doses that we have shown to significantly elevate GRAB-DA signal in the NAc were used (Alhadeff et al., 2019 ). Nicotine doses for feeding experiments were selected based on prior work showing nicotine’s long-term anorexic effects in mice (Mineur et al., 2011 (link)).